NOLA Architecture 028 - Skull Rose Fence

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This iron fence is made to look like flowers from one angle,
but skulls from another. This is to ward off evil spirits.

The upper gallery features clusters of roses that look like skulls from certain angles.

New Orleans Flora & Fauna 028 - Jasmine

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You wouldn't think I could get sick of the smell of jasmine.

But I did. The air is dizzy with it in April

NOLA Art & Whimsy 016 - Street Name Tiles

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Many of the streets in New Orleans are labeled with while tiles with blue letters. These are called "Encaustic" tiles, which means the lettering is clay dust fired with the tile, not dyed or painted, then glazed. These were likely made by the American Encaustic Tile Company of Ohio and New York.
That company went out of business in 1935, so the original tiles are at least 75 years old.

Like the Sewage & Water Board meter cap, there exists an entire design industry utilizing this motif. You can buy coasters, T-Shirts, trivets, there's even a Facebook page.

Being that these tiles are scarce and replicas are pretty expensive, sometimes you do what you gotta do to work with an old idea.

But notice that this is at Seventh St.

NOLA Architecture 028 - Pigeon Wall

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Some other types, too.

NOLA Flora & Fauna 027 - Lush Life

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Not just a Coltrane album.

NOLA Food & Bevvies 004 - Café Du Monde

Café du Monde is a stinking joke of a tourist trap.
The coffee is disgusting and the one in the French Quarter has never been cleaned (this is normally charming in New Orleans, but this place is just gross). The beignets are good but you can get good beignets anywhere.

It was sold out to a Japanese company decades ago. There is one in the French quarter, there are 4 more in the closest malls just outside of New Orleans and there are 56 of them in Japan. Cafe du Monde really hasn't been worth crap in 100 years. If you want good coffee & chicory, go to any restaurant owned by the Brennans.

The great old coffee houses in New Orleans are pretty much gone.

As I mentioned Rue De La Course had to downsize due to outrageous Magazine St. rent prices. They are the best chain there.

There is a lovely coffee shop at Magazine St. and Nashville called Bella Luna. They have a beautiful old mansion where you can sit out on the old wooden porch. They have blue sky and clouds painted in the ceiling of the outside porch. But their WiFi always gives me trouble.

My other favorite place is up on Oak St in Riverbend. It's called Z'otz. Great coffee, great Art.

Still Perkin' at Prytania & Washington has a lovely outdoor deck for reading the paper.

Fuel on Magazine St. is a new favorite.

CC's (Community Coffee) and PJ's are also near & dear to my heart.

Kaldi's down in the quarter was awesome; also couldn't afford skyrocketing rent.
They are all still doing the best they can, competing in a reduced city in a crappy economy,

but I'll tell you who isn't worried...


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Good job, fat mid-western white tourists.

This is not my city.

NOLA Burial & Necropolis 009 - Colored Crypt

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"One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?"

This crypt is an interesting splash of color in the otherwise whitewashed Lafayette Cemetery No.1. I'm very surprised there isn't more of this here.

Columnar markers are common in the New Orleans cemeteries. Most indicate "societies" and "associations" to which the deceased belonged. I need to do some research and make a post about these.
Note how long ago these people died. It's good to see that someone is keeping up on the maintenance of the tomb.

NOLA Architechture 027 - Anne Rice's St. Elizabeth's

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Where Napoleon & Prytania streets meet sits St. Elizabeth's, formerly owned by Anne Rice. I don't know much about it, except that I rode my bike past it most days as I went to work, 2/5 of a mile away on Prytania. On the Prytania side of the buiding hung a sign that read, "Stan Rice Gallery". Far as I know, Stan died and Anne sold the place. Now it is St. Elizabeth's Condominiums , for which I'm guessing she should be shot. There seems to be a fair amount of text about it (as well as interior pictures) on her website and the condo website. Please visit the links provided for that.

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